As Above, So Below (2014)
The found footage genre is predicated on the concept that the material the audience watches is supposed to be filmed from real life. This therefore presents a challenge for actors as their performances have to appear like everyday social interactions. Most people are not great orators with extensive vocabularies, in real life. Watch any wedding video or vox pop on a news broadcast and you’ll quickly become aware of the gulf between how people express themselves in reality and the stylised, contrived manner in which actors deliver dialogue. Hence, during the first act of As Above, So Below I became aware that the cast were “acting”. They were using dramatic techniques commonly used in conventional film but which stands out far more in this genre. This changed as the film progressed and the story became more deliberately chaotic. But it was noticeable during the initial set up to the story. It’s not something I’ve noticed before with other found footage movies. But in many ways, As Above, So Below is quite different compared to other genre examples
The found footage genre is predicated on the concept that the material the audience watches is supposed to be filmed from real life. This therefore presents a challenge for actors as their performances have to appear like everyday social interactions. Most people are not great orators with extensive vocabularies, in real life. Watch any wedding video or vox pop on a news broadcast and you’ll quickly become aware of the gulf between how people express themselves in reality and the stylised, contrived manner in which actors deliver dialogue. Hence, during the first act of As Above, So Below I became aware that the cast were “acting”. They were using dramatic techniques commonly used in conventional film but which stands out far more in this genre. This changed as the film progressed and the story became more deliberately chaotic. But it was noticeable during the initial set up to the story. It’s not something I’ve noticed before with other found footage movies. But in many ways, As Above, So Below is quite different compared to other genre examples
Archaeologist Scarlett Marlowe (Perdita Weeks) is obsessed with finding Nicholas Flamel's alchemical Philosopher's Stone. After finding an inscription in a cave in Iran, written in Aramaic, she travels to Paris along with her documentary cameraman Benji (Edwin Hodge). She meets with her former boyfriend George (Ben Feldman) who is an expert in ancient languages. After deciphering the inscription and using it to find hidden information on the back of Nicholas Flamel's gravestone, they discover that the Philosopher's Stone is located in the Parisian Catacombs. The team then finds a group of unofficial guides, Papillon, Siouxie and Zed, who are experienced exploring the parts of the Catacombs not open to the public. They enter the subterranean necropolis and when a tunnel collapses, are forced to take a route that has previously not been explored. Papillon is nervous as a close friend of his La Taupe vanished here, despite his knowledge. As the group travel further they become aware that all is not as it seems and that they’re all being haunted by their own past.
Once the cast are trapped in the Parisian Catacombs the plot draws heavily from Dante's Inferno. Given the scope of the story and the nature of themes therein, I would argue that maybe it would have been preferable to have made As Above, So Below a standard horror film, rather than in the found footage format. However, writers Paco Plaza, Luis A. Berdejo and Jaume Balagueró certainly are innovative with regards to pushing the boundaries of this genre. There are several noticeable scenes which have a palpable sense of claustrophobia that I’ve only seen previously in The Borderlands (2013) and The Descent (2005). The characters are at times somewhat annoying with their bickering and squabbling but that is a reflection of their personalities. There is a tipping point in the story where events veer from the strange into the pure eldritch. Stone faces appear in the walls and attack people, hooded figures charge at the unwary and the narrow corridors of the necropolis fill with blood. By this point the viewer either goes with the proceedings or emotionally checks out.
Most found footage films do not hold up to close scrutiny. The most common criticism is that there often comes a point in the story where most people would stop filming and run. And this argument can certainly be levelled at As Above, So Below. However, because the story is so ambitious with its use of nonlinear time, visions of hell and exploration of alchemy, it seems pedantic to focus on minor contradictions of the format and the film’s own internal logic. There’s also an off kilter ambience to the proceedings. Simple things like finding a piano amid the dust and confines of the tunnel are disquieting. Papillon coming across one of his own graffiti tags which he claims he hasn’t done is similarly bothersome. Plus the Parisian Catacombs themselves are just plain sinister. I suspect there may be no middle ground with As Above, So Below. You’ll either embrace its ambition and enjoy it or dismiss it out right. I chose the former.
The Problem With War of Three Peaks
Some readers may see the title of this post as an inference that there is only one problem with the latest “mini expansion” for The Lord of the Rings Online. That is not the case. However, I don’t hold developer’s Standing Stone Games responsible for the debacle over the pricing for the three different editions. That is something I lay at the door of financiers and publishers, Daybreak Game Company. For the purpose of this blog post, I wish to focus upon the lacklustre content of Update 28: War of Three Peaks and how it becomes quite clear which material was developed as part of a regular content update and what was then added to potentially try and justify the term “mini expansion”. Furthermore, I see this drop in quality as being a real threat to the future prosperity of LOTRO. I am a long time fan of this MMO, albeit one with a sense of perspective. I’m halfway through the new zone and I’m not having fun. I’m sure I am not alone in this.
Some readers may see the title of this post as an inference that there is only one problem with the latest “mini expansion” for The Lord of the Rings Online. That is not the case. However, I don’t hold developer’s Standing Stone Games responsible for the debacle over the pricing for the three different editions. That is something I lay at the door of financiers and publishers, Daybreak Game Company. For the purpose of this blog post, I wish to focus upon the lacklustre content of Update 28: War of Three Peaks and how it becomes quite clear which material was developed as part of a regular content update and what was then added to potentially try and justify the term “mini expansion”. Furthermore, I see this drop in quality as being a real threat to the future prosperity of LOTRO. I am a long time fan of this MMO, albeit one with a sense of perspective. I’m halfway through the new zone and I’m not having fun. I’m sure I am not alone in this.
Let’s start with what I like about the Elderslade region. It’s a rugged environment with several interesting hidden areas. It is also not too much of a chore to navigate and there are several points where you can take a shortcut to where you need to get to, rather than follow the roads. That is something that doesn’t happen too often in LOTRO these days. Usually, the environment is designed to funnel the player from Ato B and hems them in. The storylines are enjoyable and again show that the writers are well versed in the lore of Middle- earth. I especially like the quest arc that has you travelling with Léothred, a historian from Rohan. His revised history of Fram and his slaying of Scatha the Worm was especially well conceived. I liked the way it involved Karazgar, the Weeping Warrior to fill in the gaps in existing lore. I also like the themes that recur throughout the main Epic Story and the way the distrust between the Longbeards, Zhelruka and Stout Axes Dwarven clans is frequently an impediment to their success.
Sadly, the positive aspects of Update 28 do not necessarily compensate for the bad. For example, a common trick that SSG relies upon to increase content, is to create an area, divide it into numerous subsections and then densely populate it with mobs. The player will then be presented with a litany of fetch and kill quests forcing them to navigate throughout all areas. These sorts of quests cease to be a challenge and tips over into being tedious. Sometimes quests can be auto completed but on other occasions you find yourself at one end of an area and having to battle all the way back to hand in and finish. It’s the inconsistency here that is annoying and the feeling you’re being taken for a mug. As for the reusing of the twin phase map concept, this is not a bad idea in theory. It worked well with the Minas Morgul expansion and being able to access Mordor in the Second Age. But here it feels like an excuse to simply pad out the mini expansion with even more superfluous kill and fetch quests. Then there is the poison gas that blights specific areas of War of Three Peaks and its associated mechanic. It is simply a nuisance and adds nothing to gameplay.
A new addition to the game is the Mission system. I was hoping that these would be a variation of skirmishes with the focus on tactical gameplay. Sadly they lack that systems creativity and are little more than straightforward instances that require you to complete a basic set of criteria. IE Kill so many enemies and then a boss. The only difference here is that if you do not quickly kill the enemy, they will call for reinforcement. They also lack the story elements that skirmishes have and do not feel in any way different from the regular instances that occur in the story. Yes, you can do them with companions but you are offered no real incentive to do so with regards to the rewards. And talking of such, the new gear available in the game just feels like an increase for its own sake. The new reputation gear doesn’t seem to offer anything more than a basic increase in stats over the gear you have already. It’s all very uninspired and unengaging.
And therein lies the problem. It all feels too much like busy work for its own sake. Now it can be argued that this is the foundation of the entire MMORPG genre but I would counter that with the assertion that a good developer tries to mask busy work with a veneer of narrative engagement and a soupçon of panache. If you’re immersed in a story and doing something that doesn’t immediately strike you as busy work, then that is a MMO working well. Sadly, such things are conspicuously absent here and I keep saying to myself, “remind me again why I’m killing another dozen Angmarim?” or words to that effect. I’m in danger of getting bored to the point of abandoning the game in pursuit of another that is more entertaining and gives me a sense of accomplishment and not frustration or annoyance. If SSG wants to bounce back from this low point, then I hope that the next official expansion is a lot more inventive and enjoyable. A lot of people play this genre of games to escape the mundane nature of their chore driven lives and don’t want to have to endure something similar while playing a game like LOTRO.
Have You Ever... The Gaming Edition!
Oh look, another internet questionnaire blog post. By now you must be aware of my weakness for these sorts of things (if not then take a look at the links to related posts at the bottom of this article). It would appear that the “never have I ever” format has been adapted and we now have a “have you ever” set of questions specifically aimed at gamers. As usual some of the questions are trivial but others offer scope for quite interesting responses. Etiquette dictates that I credit those who have already participated and answered these questions. They are as follows. Michelle over at A Geek Girl’s Guide. Pix1001 from Shoot The Rookie. Joseph Skyrim’s post can be found at JVT Workshop and pkudude99 share their thoughts at Nomadic Gamers. Do check out their take on the questions as there are some interesting replies. On to the questions and answers.
Oh look, another internet questionnaire blog post. By now you must be aware of my weakness for these sorts of things (if not then take a look at the links to related posts at the bottom of this article). It would appear that the “never have I ever” format has been adapted and we now have a “have you ever” set of questions specifically aimed at gamers. As usual some of the questions are trivial but others offer scope for quite interesting responses. Etiquette dictates that I credit those who have already participated and answered these questions. They are as follows. Michelle over at A Geek Girl’s Guide. Pix1001 from Shoot The Rookie. Joseph Skyrim’s post can be found at JVT Workshop and pkudude99 share their thoughts at Nomadic Gamers. Do check out their take on the questions as there are some interesting replies. On to the questions and answers.
Q: Have you ever rage quit a game?
A: In the past, I have logged out of games when frustrated. But I don’t recall ever going the whole hog and logging out and immediately uninstalling a game. I try not to take things so personally these days. I try to foster a mindset that something can only bother you and get under your skin if you choose for it to do so. I do however, leave group games such as Call of Duty Modern Warfare/Warzone if they’re not proving to be fun or I’m playing against demonstrably superior players. I don’t see games as a test of character or some sort of rite of passage. They are services designed to provide enjoyment. I am a consumer and customer, not a zealous neophyte.
Q: Have you ever earned all achievements in a game?
A: Not that I am aware. However, I’m not motivated by such things, especially if all they reward you with is a title.
Q: Have you ever pulled an all-nighter gaming?
A: More times than I care to remember, although they are less frequent these days. However between 2007 and 2016, a period during which I lived alone, I would frequently burn the proverbial midnight oil. MMOs were at one point, a major source of all-night gaming sessions. Especially raids and tricky group content. It’s also relevant to point out that I never pulled an all-nighter gaming for negative reasons. It was all about having fun and from time to time being like a dog with a bone and chasing some reward. Nowadays, if I stay up late gaming, I usually only make it to about 3:00 AM.
Q: Have you ever live-streamed your gaming?
A: I’ve had several goes at streaming. At one point I thought that it may be an interesting alternative to podcasting. But ultimately, I find talking while playing a game difficult. It’s kind of like patting your head while rubbing your belly. If I concentrate on the talking, then the gameplay suffers. If I focus on the gameplay, then banter dries up. So my attempts never quite worked out. Plus another obstacle to cultivating a successful Twitch audience is the fact I swear like a trooper. I have no problem with profanity if used to underpin a strong sentiment. But both Twitch TV and YouTube are becoming generic corporate platforms and such “freedom of expression” does not fit with their business model.
Q: Have you ever pre-ordered a game?
A: I have in the past but having learned the hard way that paying up front is not always the best move, I seldom do it these days. When it comes to games from big companies, I like to wait a while so that all the bugs get fixed and that there are plenty of YouTube videos available to help me with tricky content.
Q: Have you ever bought a game and never played it?
A: Well I’ve bought a lot of game bundles, usually for a specific title, so there have often been games included with the deal that have shall we politely say, “fallen by the wayside”. But if we’re talking about more expensive, contemporary releases from so-called triple A publishers,I think I’ve always played what I’ve purchased. However, let me qualify that statement by adding that on occasions I’ve quickly found out that I don’t like what I’ve bought and those particular titles get uninstalled promptly.
Q: Have you ever been jump-scared by a horror game?
A: Yes, there have been some games that have caught me out with a jump scare. However, I have an abiding love of cinema, especially the horror genre. I’m not a fan of jump scares because they are relatively easy to achieve. Therefore any film that relies upon them too much is somewhat of a one trick pony. hence, I feel exactly the same when such a tactic is ported over to video games. Atmosphere, narrative, aesthetics, context and a whole host of other more subtle tools can be used to produce much better scares. However, for the sake of balance, the occasional jump scare, if thoughtfully used can be acceptable.
Q: Have you ever had a set squad for a specific game?
A: No. The nearest I’ve got to this was back in my early MMO days. I played The Lord of the Rings Online with an active kinship (guild) so we always had competent players available to do the heavy lifting when it came to raids and instances. I’ve also over the years spent time in games where I’ve known other players and duo’d with them from time to time. But nowadays, I only group when I have to or if the game has an easy “auto grouping” facility like Star Trek Online.
Q: Have you ever bought a game on multiple platforms?
A: Only once. I owned Unreal Tournament (1999 edition) for the PC and subsequently bought it again when I purchased a bundle of games for the Sega Dreamcast. Since 2000 I have played games exclusively on the PC.
Q: Have you ever got a console for the games specifically?
A: I really wanted to play Red Dead Redemption when it came out and seriously considered buying a Playstation 3 to do so. But having to use a game controller instead of keyboard and mouse was the main stumping block so I didn’t actually do it. I recently gave serious thought to purchasing a Nintendo Switch but the main reason I didn’t is because there wasn’t a specific title that seemed “essential” to me. Unless the latest generation of consoles offers something groundbreaking, I don’t think I’m destined to buy one ever again.
Telefon (1977)
When one considers all the various elements involved in the production of Telefon, it makes it all the more disappointing that the movie fails to reach its potential. The basic idea about sleeper agents in the US is sound but the story doesn’t really go anywhere and not a great deal happens. The strong cast featuring Charles Bronson, Lee Remick and Donald Pleasance have to do their best with an undeveloped screenplay. Considering that it was written by Peter Hyams and Stirling Silliphant (from a novel by Walter Wager) it is quite surprising how lacklustre it all is. But perhaps the most saddening aspect of the film is the somewhat indifferent direction from Don Siegel, who by his own admission was not especially engaged with the story. Considering that he had scored a major hit the previous year with John Wayne’s swansong The Shootist, makes it more curious that he wasn’t more enthused. Even Lalo Schifrin’s score fails to bolster Telefon.
When one considers all the various elements involved in the production of Telefon, it makes it all the more disappointing that the movie fails to reach its potential. The basic idea about sleeper agents in the US is sound but the story doesn’t really go anywhere and not a great deal happens. The strong cast featuring Charles Bronson, Lee Remick and Donald Pleasance have to do their best with an undeveloped screenplay. Considering that it was written by Peter Hyams and Stirling Silliphant (from a novel by Walter Wager) it is quite surprising how lacklustre it all is. But perhaps the most saddening aspect of the film is the somewhat indifferent direction from Don Siegel, who by his own admission was not especially engaged with the story. Considering that he had scored a major hit the previous year with John Wayne’s swansong The Shootist, makes it more curious that he wasn’t more enthused. Even Lalo Schifrin’s score fails to bolster Telefon.
As the Cold War gives way to détente, the Soviet government purges old Stalin loyalists that do not favour peace. Nikolai Dalchimsky (Donald Pleasence), a rogue KGB member, flees to America, taking with him a document which contains details of obsolete sleeper agents. As he begins activating them, American counterintelligence is baffled by random acts of terrorism, committed by ordinary citizens against what were formerly top secret facilities. To prevent a war that neither side wants, KGB Major Grigori Borzov (Charles Bronson) is sent to neutralise Dalchimsky. Borzov has a photographic memory and hence retains all the information from the copy of the “telefon book” that Dalchimsky has taken. On arrival in the US, Borzov is assisted by longterm agent Barbara (Lee Remick). Together they seek a pattern to which agents that Dalchimsky is activating. Will they be able to stop him in time, while avoiding the US authorities.
The rights for the novel Telefon were acquired by MGM in late 1974 and the studio were confident that it would make a marketable thriller. Peter Hyams wrote the first draft of the screenplay and was hoping to direct the film himself. However, as his previous project for MGM, Peepers, had failed at the box office, he quickly realised that an alternative director would be assigned the job. So he wrote a second draft of the script for Richard Lester. However, Lester left the project and Don Siegel replaced him. The veteran director was mainly interested in working with Charles Bronson again and was not enamoured with Hyams work. So Stirling Silliphant wrote a third revision of the screenplay. The production then began filming in Finland which doubled for Russia, before returning to the US. The explosive set pieces and stunts were handled by Paul Baxley. Sadly, beyond the initial excitement of working with Bronson, Siegel found that the story didn’t “make much sense” and did not apply himself as diligently to his work as he had in previous years.
Telefon is clearly lacking in substance and does have a somewhat perfunctory quality to it. Yet there are some good ideas present and it offers at first glance a variation on themes seen previously in The Manchurian Candidate. Lee Remick is quirky, with a dry sense of humour. Bronson easily fills the role as a KGB Major. But there’s a lack of urgency to the screenplay and it feels too much like a TV movie from this era, albeit one with a bigger budget. Perhaps the film’s biggest mistake is it’s need to have a “happy ending”, as opposed to a more credible one. And as you’d expect from a production with such a history of change and artistic indifference, the press were equally ambivalent. Some critics accused the film of being anti peace. Others felt that Telefon was too pro Russian. Similarly, the film failed to find a consensus among cinema goers. Perhaps if Peter Hyams had directed his own first draft of the script, we may well have had a superior film. However, after departing Telefon, Hyams went onto write and direct Capricorn One, so one can argue that every cloud has a silver lining.
Tales That Witness Madness (1973)
I have a soft spot for portmanteau horror films, especially those made in the UK during the seventies. They often have an impressive cast of character actors and offer a snapshot of fashion, culture and sensibilities from the times. However, their weakness often lies with the inconsistency of the various stories. These can range from the outstanding, to what can best be described as filler. Furthermore, although the latter category have just as short a running time as the other vignettes, it is always the poor ones that seem to drag and disrupt the flow of the film. Tales That Witness Madness does not suffer too badly from this problem. Out of the four stories that are featured two stand out and two others are just average and not overtly bad. However, irrespective of potential narrative inconsistencies, there are some good ideas and a ghoulish streak running throughout the fill’s ninety minute running time.
I have a soft spot for portmanteau horror films, especially those made in the UK during the seventies. They often have an impressive cast of character actors and offer a snapshot of fashion, culture and sensibilities from the times. However, their weakness often lies with the inconsistency of the various stories. These can range from the outstanding, to what can best be described as filler. Furthermore, although the latter category have just as short a running time as the other vignettes, it is always the poor ones that seem to drag and disrupt the flow of the film. Tales That Witness Madness does not suffer too badly from this problem. Out of the four stories that are featured two stand out and two others are just average and not overtly bad. However, irrespective of potential narrative inconsistencies, there are some good ideas and a ghoulish streak running throughout the fill’s ninety minute running time.
Tales That Witness Madness is not an Amicus production but instead made by World Film Services. Efficiently directed by Freddie Francis, the framing story set in a high security psychiatric hospital sets an interesting tone. It is a brightly lit, modern environment and a far cry from the typical gothic asylums that are de rigueur in the horror genre. Jack Hawkins (dubbed by Charles Gray) and Donald Pleasance effortlessly navigate through their respective roles as two Doctors discussing cases. The first story, “Mr.Tiger”, is by far the weakest and is no more than the sum of its parts. A young boy has an imaginary friend who happens to be a tiger. It subsequently kills his parents who are constantly bickering. No explanation or deeper motive is provided. The second tale, “Penny Farthing”, packs a lot more into its duration including time travel, murder and a fiery denouement. It doesn’t make a lot of sense when thought about but it is a creepy vignette.
“Mel” is by far the oddest and most interesting story on offer. While out running Brian (Michael Jayston) finds a curious tree that has been cut down. He brings it home and places it in his lounge, much to his wife Bella’s annoyance (Joan Collins). Fascinated by the tree, which has the name Mel carved into it, he lavishes it with attention. Bella becomes jealous and decides to get rid of her rival. Naturally the story has a twist. There’s also a lurid dream sequence featuring Mel attacking Bella that predates The Evil Dead. The final story “Luau” about Auriol Pageant (Kim Novak) whose new client Kimo (Michael Petrovich) has designs on her daughter Ginny (Mary Tamm) is formulaic. The finale featuring a feast to appease a Hawaiian god is somewhat obvious. The climax of the framing story is also somewhat perfunctory but it does neatly conclude the proceedings.
The portmanteau horror sub genre has on occasions surpassed itself with such films as Dead of Night and Creepshow. But the inherent risk of providing a “visual buffet”, is that like the culinary equivalent, they’ll always be something you don’t like or that has been added because it’s cheap and easy. There is an element of this in Tales That Witness Madness. However, when reflecting upon not only British horror films from the seventies but other genres as well, one must remember that cinema was still a major source of entertainment and that a lot of the material was quickly produced to fill gaps in the market that TV could not provide at the time. With this in mind, Tales That Witness Madness may not be especially entertaining to the casual viewer. The more dedicated horror fan may find it more entertaining and of interest as an example of a specific sub genre that has fallen into decline in recent years.
LOTRO Classic
In the last month or so, I’ve spent some time perusing the official forums for the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online. It suffers from many of the shortcomings you find on fan driven gaming forums, insofar as it’s monopolised by a small cadre of partisan minded players that are not an especially broad cross section of the LOTRO community. However, a wide range of thoughts and ideas about the game are discussed on these forums. Sometimes, if the planets are in the correct alignment, staff from Standing Stone Games will even deign to reply. Recently, a particularly interesting question that has frequently been raised by players finally got addressed by SSG developer Jeff Libby (AKA MadeOfLions). Namely, will there ever be a release of LOTRO Classic? An “old school” server with the game as it was when it launched in 2007. The fact that they actually answered is the main surprise here. Everything else about the actual reply is par for the course and embodies everything that is wrong with SSG and their community relations. Here is the original question and the subsequent answer.
In the last month or so, I’ve spent some time perusing the official forums for the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online. It suffers from many of the shortcomings you find on fan driven gaming forums, insofar as it’s monopolised by a small cadre of partisan minded players that are not an especially broad cross section of the LOTRO community. However, a wide range of thoughts and ideas about the game are discussed on these forums. Sometimes, if the planets are in the correct alignment, staff from Standing Stone Games will even deign to reply. Recently, a particularly interesting question that has frequently been raised by players finally got addressed by SSG developer Jeff Libby (AKA MadeOfLions). Namely, will there ever be a release of LOTRO Classic? An “old school” server with the game as it was when it launched in 2007. The fact that they actually answered is the main surprise here. Everything else about the actual reply is par for the course and embodies everything that is wrong with SSG and their community relations. Here is the original question and the subsequent answer.
Question by LotroVidz: Also most of the devs seem to not be original devs from 2007, so how can they know without asking the player base? MOL didn't even understand why players ask for a classic version of the game. He doesn't seem to understand how much of a different game the original Lotro was.
Answer by Made of Lions: Hi there, original dev from 2007 here. No, I understand it. I also love a lot of the games I played years ago (the amount of money I've spent buying digital versions of the games I loved from the 90s is downright embarrassing), so I know what it is to look back at something and miss it. I would personally love to see a version of LOTRO from launch, to run around in old-timey Eriador and see it in all of its 2007 glory. I stood in line at my local Gamestop on launch day to buy the strategy guide I also helped compile, and I remember running around Breeland listening to players be... stumped... about the location of the Hanging Tree, which was harder to find back then. There's just something about a brand-new MMO, when it's a vast and undiscovered world of mystery and full of promise. You won't find a bigger fan than me, and I would have a great time running around Original Recipe LOTRO. That would be a great afternoon.
But it doesn't have the longevity you remember. It's a snapshot, frozen in time, and from our perspective it's a snapshot that would remove tens of thousands of fixes, some minor, but many serious. "But I liked it better before!" you say. "I want a version that only has what I like, and doesn't have anything that I don't! I want you to restore Frodo's Burden to the slow and frustrating experience it started as." I hear you, and I understand, but our Engineers have plenty on their plates already without being tasked to revert LOTRO to the years-old state that best suits your taste. Engineers in particular are allergic to undoing their own fixes, since those tend to be the most important when compared to the kind of things Content usually has to fix. Frodo's Burden, alas, will remain in its adjusted state. MoL
It can be difficult sometimes to accurately interpret the tone that may or not be present within any written response. Some people believe that there is a degree of condescension present in Jeff Libby’s reply and that again we see SSG dealing with customer questions as if they’re an inconvenience or nuisance. Whether that is true or not is something that we have to decide for ourselves. Semantics and diplomacy aside, the statement does raise some interesting points.
Does the original code for the Shadows of Angmar version of LOTRO still exist? Are there backups of previous server builds or would all previous patches and content updates have to be manually “unpicked”?
Assuming that an earlier version of LOTRO could be made available, exactly how would SSG monetise it? This is an important question as there would naturally be costs incurred when running LOTRO Classic. Would the VIP subscription yield enough revenue to make such a venture viable? There was no store present in LOTRO in 2007 and the game as it was then has no immediate means of running store based transactions in-game.
Would producing and maintaining LOTRO Classic be a wise division of SSGs development resources? Is SSG just too small a gaming developer to be able to sustain multiple servers with multiple iterations of the same product?
Would LOTRO and the player community be better served by SSG focusing their finite resources on a major bug fixing project? Would the overhauling of problematic systems and developing new kinds of innovative content attract new and lapsed players back to the MMO and extend the games lifespan?
But I think the biggest issue with Jeff Libby’s response is his point that players may well think they’d like to play LOTRO Classic but they don’t really want it, because their judgement is being clouded by nostalgia. I consider this to be a patently false axiom. A similar argument was perpetuated by Blizzard for years, when players asked for World of Warcraft Classic. It proved totally wrong and we now have such an iteration of that game and it appears to be doing fine. Many LOTRO players would love to get their hands on some of the older systems that have now been replaced, or play through some of the instances and raids before they were nerfed and split up. One of the major appeals for roleplayers is simply being able to exist in a virtual Middle-earth. The game as it was in 2007, although technically smaller, felt bigger than it does now. Travelling around originally took longer and players did not immediately have access to mounts. LOTRO Classic may even tempt some newer players to come and see how much the games changed over time.
The LOTRO Community can be myopic and even a little partisan. But many have grown old with the game and are fully aware of what they’d be getting if a version of LOTRO Classic became available. They are fans but not necessarily fools and it is disingenuous for anyone at SSG to patronise them. I’m of the opinion that SSG could, if they wanted too, produce a form of LOTRO Classic. They just don’t want to as I’m sure it will be a lot of hard work and that the issue of integrating the in-game store is a major problem for them. But because of the way that SSG handles communication and interacts with its community, this question is never going to go away. If they clearly, politely and categorically said that they can’t or won’t produce a form of LOTRO Classic and then gave a sound reason, then the player base may well move on. But candid and direct communication is not their style. However, there may be a small ray of hope. Ultimately, the decision regarding LOTRO Classic may not be SSGs to make. If their “publisher” Daybreak Game Company felt that there was money in such a project, there could be a complete U-turn on this subject.
Wake Wood (2009)
Sometimes when making a film, less can indeed be more. Practical things like keeping the scope of your story simple, working within your budget and not feeling obliged to justify or explain every aspect of the plot can prove invaluable. If you can do all of these things with a robust cast, intelligent direction, while maintaining your viewers attention, then you have achieved something that many studios and independent filmmakers usually cannot do. Director David Keating has managed to do this with the 2009 horror film Wake Wood. Along with Brendan McCarthy who he co-wrote the screenplay with him, Wake Wood efficiently and charismatically tells its tale. It is well paced, with relatable characters and good performances. The atmosphere builds and there are some jolting moments of horror. Furthermore, it is both unusual and rewarding to see pagan rituals portrayed as an extension of rural life, in the same way as farming and animal husbandry. It is neither malevolent or benign but just an ever present force.
Sometimes when making a film, less can indeed be more. Practical things like keeping the scope of your story simple, working within your budget and not feeling obliged to justify or explain every aspect of the plot can prove invaluable. If you can do all of these things with a robust cast, intelligent direction, while maintaining your viewers attention, then you have achieved something that many studios and independent filmmakers usually cannot do. Director David Keating has managed to do this with the 2009 horror film Wake Wood. Along with Brendan McCarthy who he co-wrote the screenplay with him, Wake Wood efficiently and charismatically tells its tale. It is well paced, with relatable characters and good performances. The atmosphere builds and there are some jolting moments of horror. Furthermore, it is both unusual and rewarding to see pagan rituals portrayed as an extension of rural life, in the same way as farming and animal husbandry. It is neither malevolent or benign but just an ever present force.
Vet Patrick Daley (Aiden Gillen) and his wife Louise (Eva Birthistle), a pharmacist, move to the rural village called Wake Wood, after their daughter Alice (Ella Connolly) is mauled to death by a dog. Louise struggles to come to terms with her loss and the fact she can have no further children. One evening after their car breaks down, Patrick and Louise go to the nearby house of Patrick's veterinary colleague, Arthur (Timothy Spall), for assistance. Louise witnesses Arthur conducting a pagan ritual but says nothing to Patrick. Lousie becomes increasingly aware that something is not quite right with the village and that Arthur saw her observing the ritual. Soon afterwards a farmer is killed by his own bull while Patrick is tending to it. Horrified by another accidental death the couple plan to leave, but Arthur convinces them to stay. He claims he can bring their daughter back but only for three days and only if she has been dead for less than a year. The conflicted couple agree to his offer on the understanding that they must remain in Wake Wood forever.
If you are familiar with The Wicker Man, Don’t Look Now or any of the adaptations of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary then you’ll find several similar themes present in Wake Wood. This is a film about loss, how people cope with bereavement and what personal sacrifices you would make just to see your loved one again. Fortunately for such a character driven story, performances are universally good. Aiden Gillen is very plausible as a man throwing himself into his work to avoid his feelings. Eva Birthistle excels as a Mother who cannot move on after the death of her only child. Timothy Spall compliments the cast as retired veterinarian Arthur. He brings an air of normalcy to the pagan elements of the plot and his performance is quietly understated rather than overtly theatrical.The Irish setting and cultural heritage gives a uniquely Celtic feel to the proceedings and provides sufficient difference from other genre movies that have trodden a similar path. Overall, Wake Watch does not overreach itself and contains some rather flamboyant Fulci-eque violence to boot. Hence it is a superior genre movie. Competitors should take note.
A Month in Gaming
The last 31 days have gone by really fast, or at least that’s the way it feels. Despite having bought several new games recently and acquired yet more for free from the Epic Store, I did not embark on anything new throughout October. Due to the unexpectedly prompt release of the new “mini expansion” for The Lord of the Rings Online and the launch of a new event in Star Trek Online, I found myself focused upon the MMORPG genre, yet again. And after playing continuously for six months, Call of Duty Modern Warfare/Warzone has finally begun to lose its lustre. I didn’t especially enjoy the Halloween event, not that there was anything inherently wrong with it. It just wasn’t for me. I played a little Fall Guy: Ultimate Knockout but quickly discovered that the “season” system is just another gear treadmill, although the gear in this instance are novelty cosmetic outfits. I don’t want to be tied to too many games in this fashion (it’s bad enough with MMOs), so this is another title that has been relegated to occasional play when the fancy takes me.
The last 31 days have gone by really fast, or at least that’s the way it feels. Despite having bought several new games recently and acquired yet more for free from the Epic Store, I did not embark on anything new throughout October. Due to the unexpectedly prompt release of the new “mini expansion” for The Lord of the Rings Online and the launch of a new event in Star Trek Online, I found myself focused upon the MMORPG genre, yet again. And after playing continuously for six months, Call of Duty Modern Warfare/Warzone has finally begun to lose its lustre. I didn’t especially enjoy the Halloween event, not that there was anything inherently wrong with it. It just wasn’t for me. I played a little Fall Guy: Ultimate Knockout but quickly discovered that the “season” system is just another gear treadmill, although the gear in this instance are novelty cosmetic outfits. I don’t want to be tied to too many games in this fashion (it’s bad enough with MMOs), so this is another title that has been relegated to occasional play when the fancy takes me.
Upon my return to LOTRO, a quick review of my account status showed that I own everything up to and including Update 27: The Great Wedding. Hence I decided not to subscribe to the game. The downsides to this are negligible. I can live without the monthly stipend of LOTRO points and do not mind having to use mailboxes to access in-game mail. And so I played through the entire of the Mists of the Wildlands and The Great Wedding updates and enjoyed both. Contrary to my expectations The Great Wedding was not a litany of “fetch quests” and so offered an enjoyable change of pace and content. The focus was on the narrative and it was fun to see SSG bring back characters that had featured previously in the game. Questing in the Wells of Langflood was also agreeable. I found the Holbytlan village of Lyndelby to be a welcome break from continual combat. I also liked the lore based stories that occur while travelling with Léothred. Having built up a modest amount of LOTRO points, I took the opportunity to replace all my gear with items from Adventurer's Steel-bound Lootbox. I like to be prepared and as well equipped as possible.
As I indicated in previous posts, I bought the Standard Edition of the War of Three Peaks “mini expansion”. I simply couldn’t see any value in the other editions and I still grumbled about being charged £15 for the base version. So far, I am not overly impressed with War of Three Peaks. It is not so imaginative as other content updates and feels rather perfunctory. Too often the player is funnelled from A to B with dynamic quests popping up along the way. Quests rely too heavily on killing a fixed quantity of mobs of a certain type. And SSG do they’re usual trick of substituting genuine challenge with forcing the player into an area that’s densely packed with enemies. Simply traversing such places ceases to be enjoyable and just becomes a chore. Once again the biggest saving grace is the storyline. Those focused on the endeavours of the Dwarves always seem to be the strongest in this game.
STO always has an abundance of timed events, so there’s always something new going on in the game. However, the rewards vary so I don’t always feel the need to participate in all of them. I have not done so for the last three. However The Widening Gyre event offers an Imperial Rift Space Set (a 5 piece set of equipment for your ship) so I decided to grind through 20 daily Task Force Operations and subsequently earned the reward. It is a good set and gave me an excuse to return to this MMO. The current story arc in STO is the Klingon Civil War and there were three episodic missions outstanding for me to complete. Developers Cryptic are currently revising a lot of the Klingon based content in the game. As ever it is impressively voice acted by such actors as J.G Hertzler, Robert O’Reilly and Rekha Sharma. Cryptic have also added a new feature to the game allowing players to add an Experimental Upgrade to existing T6 or T5-U starships. The tokens are available in the C-Store and add +1 Device Slot, +1 Universal Console Slot and +1 Starship Trait Slot. I applied one of these to a Tucker Class Miracle Worker Cruiser which now has a formidable 13 consoles.
Life is often full of surprises. I, like many others, was expecting a second lockdown here in the UK and one begins for a month (provisionally) on Thursday 5th of November. What I wasn’t expecting was to have to self isolate again. To cut a long story short I have come into contact with several people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and now have to stay indoors for 14 days. Although this is an inconvenience to a degree, it does offer an opportunity for some additional gaming. This is beneficial when focusing on MMOs which are by their very nature time sinks. Hopefully, if I can catch up with all current content in both LOTRO and STO I can then focus on playing one of the new RPGs that I’ve recently bought. I have a feeling that Christmas is going to be a somewhat insular affair this year, so such a game will be an ideal entertainment solution.
Sean Connery (1930 - 2020)
Growing up in the seventies, by the time I became aware of Sean Connery as an actor he had already transcended the role of James Bond and become an international “superstar”. Roger Moore was my generation’s 007 but I was constantly reminded by the “older people” that he “couldn’t hold a candle to Sean Connery”. For many the Scottish actor defined this iconic role and so before I even became familiar with the man and his work, I was aware that there was some kind of mystique surrounding him. Around the time I was eight, I was finally introduced to his inimitable acting style with his performances as Mulai Ahmed er Raisuni in The Wind and the Lion (1975). It was a larger than life performance of a larger than life character; the sort of role that came to define Sean Connery in his later years. On paper it was utterly preposterous. A Scottish man playing an Arab potentate. But it worked and left a marked impression upon me.
Growing up in the seventies, by the time I became aware of Sean Connery as an actor he had already transcended the role of James Bond and become an international “superstar”. Roger Moore was my generation’s 007 but I was constantly reminded by the “older people” that he “couldn’t hold a candle to Sean Connery”. For many the Scottish actor defined this iconic role and so before I even became familiar with the man and his work, I was aware that there was some kind of mystique surrounding him. Around the time I was eight, I was finally introduced to his inimitable acting style with his performances as Mulai Ahmed er Raisuni in The Wind and the Lion (1975). It was a larger than life performance of a larger than life character; the sort of role that came to define Sean Connery in his later years. On paper it was utterly preposterous. A Scottish man playing an Arab potentate. But it worked and left a marked impression upon me.
As I grew older, I finally caught up with Sean Connery’s tenure as James Bond and the films were notably different to those that followed in his wake. The first two Bond instalments were quite brutal and 007 was not quite the caricature he later became. I also understood why Connery tried so hard to break away from that character and the stifling trappings of the success it brought. Yet many of the experimental roles he decided to take during the seventies, which were the polar opposite from Bond, did not find an audience or box office success. By the eighties he appeared to finally embrace the bravura roles that he was constantly offered and carved a new niche for himself, endearing him to a new generation of fans. Again the casting of Sean Connery was often incongruous. Look no further than Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez in the Highlander. But on other occasions, characters such as Henry Jones in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade were spot on and pure Hollywood gold.
Sean Connery remains a curious paradox. In many ways he was a textbook example of a Hollywood star whose sheer charm and charisma could carry him through roles that were somewhat implausible. Consider for a moment his Oscar winning performance in The Untouchables (1987) where he played an Irish Cop with a distinct Scottish accent. Yet he could provide nuance when required or more to the point when it suited him. His acting chops are clear in films such as The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Offence (1973) and The Hill (1965). But more often than not, filmmakers just wanted Sean Connery “the star” in their movies and so that is what he gave them. He liked big speeches and monologues; scenes in which his character would philosophise or reflect upon life. Often John Milius, a writer and director he’d worked with before, would “fix” scripts to provide such dialogue for him.
However, in 2003, old age and a growing frustration with a film industry that was run by “idiots” prompted Connery to retire. He turned down the role of Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy and a second opportunity to play Henry Jones again. In many ways this was a wise decision.Not only were quality roles declining but the media is seldom kind to ageing celebrities. For many, seeing “James Bond” grow old would have been unbearable. Even now it is quite difficult to reconcile the reality of his death with his show business persona. However, he leaves behind a broad body of work filled with numerous, eminently watchable films. The Hunt for Red October showcases Connery the Hollywood star. Marnie or Robin and Marian highlight a different side to the actor. Personally I’ve always had a soft spot for his performance as Agamemnon in Time Bandits and as Marshal O'Niel in Outland.
The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959)
The stories of Hammer films “horsetrading” with the British Board of Film Censorship (as the BBFC were called at the time) make for some interesting reading. If you're interested in the history of the studio I thoroughly recommend the book A New Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema by David Pirie. However, the BBFC felt that they’d been hoodwinked after the release of The Curse of Frankenstein in 1957, which had managed to smuggle additional unpleasantries into the final theatrical edit. Henceforth the board took a more formidable stance when dealing with Hammer and all subsequent releases. Hence The Man Who Could Cheat Death feels somewhat tame compared to earlier Hammer films. Although cuts were made to the final edit of the movie, one gets the impression that maybe the more salacious and graphic content was possibly reduced when writing the screenplay. However, with that all said, The Man Who Could Cheat Death is still a handsome, performance driven Hammer horror.
The stories of Hammer films “horsetrading” with the British Board of Film Censorship (as the BBFC were called at the time) make for some interesting reading. If you're interested in the history of the studio I thoroughly recommend the book A New Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema by David Pirie. However, the BBFC felt that they’d been hoodwinked after the release of The Curse of Frankenstein in 1957, which had managed to smuggle additional unpleasantries into the final theatrical edit. Henceforth the board took a more formidable stance when dealing with Hammer and all subsequent releases. Hence The Man Who Could Cheat Death feels somewhat tame compared to earlier Hammer films. Although cuts were made to the final edit of the movie, one gets the impression that maybe the more salacious and graphic content was possibly reduced when writing the screenplay. However, with that all said, The Man Who Could Cheat Death is still a handsome, performance driven Hammer horror.
In 1890, Dr. Georges Bonnet (Anton Diffring) is the talk of the Parisian art scene due to his lifelike sculptures and his ongoing affair with his model Margo Philippe (Delphi Lawrence). At a party to unveil his latest work, Bonnet meets Dr. Pierre Gerrard (Christopher Lee) and his companion Janine Du Bois (Hazel Court). Janine had a torrid romance with Dr. Bonnet ten years ago in Italy. Against his better judgement Bonnet resumes his affair with Janine, although he refuses to explain why he vanished a decade prior. In the meantime, Bonnet awaits the arrival of his lifelong friend, Dr. Ludwig Weiss (Arnold Marlé) from Switzerland. Weiss is a pioneer in his medical field and Bonner is dependent upon him to perform a unique operation that he needs to stay alive. However, when Weiss finally arrives he has suffered a stroke and can no longer use his right hand. Perhaps Dr. Gerrard can be persuaded to perform the procedure. However, matters are further complicated not only by the love triangle between Bonner, Janine and Gerrard but by a visit from Inspector Legriss (Franics De Wolff), who is investigating the sudden disappearance of Margo Phillippe.
The Man Who Could Cheat Death is a typical Hammer production in so far as it is studio based with little or no exterior shots. The sets are suitably atmospheric and gothic, though some were redressed from the previous production, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Cinematographer Jack Asher used pastel coloured filters when lighting the more sinister scenes, especially when Dr. Bonnet is in his laboratory, drinking his elixir or suffering the ill effects of his medical condition. As ever with Hammer films, the lead cast do much to carry the plot and distract the viewer from the shortcomings of the screenplay. Sadly, as mentioned previously, the horror content is rather light in this film. Several murders happen either offscreen or with the killer blocking the audience's view. There was some additional nudity shot for the European and Asian markets but no such material made it into the UK and US release. The most ghoulish scene occurs at the film’s denouement and also features some interesting stunt work.
The Man Who Could Cheat Death is neither the best example of Hammer Film Productions output from the fifties nor the worst. Anton Diffring does well in the lead role which was originally intended for Peter Cushing. The film does not out stay its welcome with a running time of 83 minutes, although it is rather verbose with the emphasis upon narrative drama, rather than action. Naturally judged by today’s standards it is all rather tame but films such as this were causing quite a stir at the time and there was a lot of critical disdain for these lurid, technicolor horror stories. However Hammer chose to focus on the box office returns and so continued producing to a tried and tested formula. They had a knack for making their films look more sumptuous than they really were due to clever production design and inventive photography. They also new that sex sells and were not averse to focusing on the moral corruption that usually goes hand in hand with violence and horror.
The Reptile (1966)
After his brother Charles dies in mysterious circumstances, Harry Spaulding (Ray Barrett) inherits his cottage in the Clagmoor Heath, Cornwall. He quickly moves in with his new bride, Valerie (Jenifer Daniel), with a view to finding out what happened. However, he is shunned by the locals apart from the village publican, Tom Bailey (Michael Ripper), who befriends him. The only other resident in the vicinity of the cottage is Dr. Franklyn (Noel Willman), the owner of the nearby Well House. He lives with his daughter Anna (Jacqueline Pearce), who is attended by a silent Malay servant (Marne Maitland). Anna is a strange girl who seems to be harbouring a secret. Her father treats her contemptuously and does his utmost to keep her confined to Well House. When the local village eccentric, Mad Peter (John Laurie), dies in a similar fashion to Charles Spaulding, both Harry and Tom decide to take matters into their own hands and to investigate further.
After his brother Charles dies in mysterious circumstances, Harry Spaulding (Ray Barrett) inherits his cottage in the Clagmoor Heath, Cornwall. He quickly moves in with his new bride, Valerie (Jenifer Daniel), with a view to finding out what happened. However, he is shunned by the locals apart from the village publican, Tom Bailey (Michael Ripper), who befriends him. The only other resident in the vicinity of the cottage is Dr. Franklyn (Noel Willman), the owner of the nearby Well House. He lives with his daughter Anna (Jacqueline Pearce), who is attended by a silent Malay servant (Marne Maitland). Anna is a strange girl who seems to be harbouring a secret. Her father treats her contemptuously and does his utmost to keep her confined to Well House. When the local village eccentric, Mad Peter (John Laurie), dies in a similar fashion to Charles Spaulding, both Harry and Tom decide to take matters into their own hands and to investigate further.
Filmed simultaneously with The Plague of Zombies with which it shared several sets, The reptile is a slower paced, more thoughtful film that prefers to focus on the psychological collapse of its central characters, rather than set pieces. It is one of the best Hammer movies from the sixties which blends traditional horror elements with more mainstream period costume dramas. The production design is stylish and captures the atmosphere of a claustrophobic Cornish village. The interiors of Well House are an interesting juxtaposition to this, with Dr. Franklyn’s exotic flowers and penchant for Indian culture. As for the Reptile makeup by Roy Ashton, it works well by the standards of the time. Director John Gilling wisely keeps scenes featuring the transformed Anna, to a minimum and lights them favourably. Another ghoulish embellishment is the way the victims turn black and purple after being bitten.
However, it is the central performance by Jaqueline Pearce which is the standout feature of The Reptile. She gives a haunting performance often relying purely on her demeanour, rather than dialogue to express her torment. Noel Willman, who was a substitute for Peter Cushing, is also notable as Anna’s guilt wracked father. He is the architect of both his own and his daughter’s ruin while also being a victim of her curse. Another enjoyable aspect of The Reptile is seeing Hammer stalwart Michael Ripper in an expanded role and not meeting a grisly demise. Sadly, some cuts originally made to the film by the BBFC for its theatrical release, still persist and the material has not been found or restored to the current Blu-ray release. Yet The Reptile remains a superior example of Hammer’s work from this era, before they felt compelled to make their content more salacious to stay competitive.
MMO Nostalgia
Every now and then, when I log into The Lord of the Rings Online, as I ride through a new zone and drink in the vividly realised landscape and sumptuous ambient music, I am smitten by a wave of nostalgia. Just for a few seconds, I recall the emotional excitement of being in a virtual Middle-earth for the first time. I also remember the camaraderie and good company I experienced when I started playing this MMO in 2008. It is a powerful experience but sadly very short lived. Something subsequently happens to take me out of my reverie and bring me back to the current state of the game with a bump. This can be hitching, a major lag spike or a Dwarf irritatingly jumping up and down in my peripheral vision as I peruse the Auction House. Hence my present relationship with LOTRO and indeed the MMORPG genre is one based upon nostalgia and a hint of sadness. I still enjoy LOTRO mainly because of the stories and lore, as well as my friends in our kinship. But I no longer experience the game, as I did over a decade ago. And I miss that.
Every now and then, when I log into The Lord of the Rings Online, as I ride through a new zone and drink in the vividly realised landscape and sumptuous ambient music, I am smitten by a wave of nostalgia. Just for a few seconds, I recall the emotional excitement of being in a virtual Middle-earth for the first time. I also remember the camaraderie and good company I experienced when I started playing this MMO in 2008. It is a powerful experience but sadly very short lived. Something subsequently happens to take me out of my reverie and bring me back to the current state of the game with a bump. This can be hitching, a major lag spike or a Dwarf irritatingly jumping up and down in my peripheral vision as I peruse the Auction House. Hence my present relationship with LOTRO and indeed the MMORPG genre is one based upon nostalgia and a hint of sadness. I still enjoy LOTRO mainly because of the stories and lore, as well as my friends in our kinship. But I no longer experience the game, as I did over a decade ago. And I miss that.
LOTRO was my introduction to the MMORPG genre. And when I started playing, “multiplayer” was still an integral aspect of such games. It was clear right from the get go that much of the content was designed for groups and if you wished to progress through the game, you’d be dependent on playing with others. However, I was at a point in my life where I had the time available to sink into such a game, mainly because I was living alone. Furthermore, this kind of gaming experience was still novel for me and I enjoyed the company of other gamers. I fortunately hooked up with some like minded gamers who were loitering around a particularly nasty enemy and necessity brought us together to defeat it. Names were subsequently added to a friends lists and shortly thereafter I found myself joining a kinship (guild) with the same people. Circumstances, along with a lack of exposure to games of this kind meant that for the next few years this MMO was my game of choice.
Between 2008 and the present, I have played most major MMOs at some point. Each new game has always promised something “different”. Sometimes this has been the case. Rift brought “dynamic content” to the mainstream. However, over time trends have changed. Tab targeting and skill rotations have given way to action combat and greater situational awareness. The reliance on the traditional “trinity” of classes has been replaced by more flexible builds. But if you can heal yourself and adapt to different situations, then the need to group is negated. Social game play has become optional and for many players unnecessary. Other genres have successfully adopted elements from the MMO. Hence, many cooperative games have poached former MMO players. Thus, several decades on from the halcyon days of Ultima Online and EverQuest, the MMO genre has now become a distinctly niche market product. It retains loyal gamers but is no longer seen by the video games industry as the “future of gaming (AKA cash cow) they once thought it to be.
It can be argued that the MMORPG genre has never reached its full potential. The right balance of features and game mechanics has never quite been implemented in any game. Players cannot make any lasting changes upon the virtual world that they play in. Housing has never really progressed beyond a cosmetic storage zone. Linear progression and grinding for gear is still the primary focus of many games. The social aspect of these types of games have all too often diminished and the developers seldom do anything to incentivise such activities. And many players never fully experience the majority of the content that a game has to offer. Twelve years on, I often get this sense of a missed opportunity whenever I log into LOTRO. It’s a somewhat saddening feeling. The game get’s content updates but it tends to be just more of the same and there’s no innovation from developers Standing Stone Games. The same can be said for other MMOs to a greater or lesser degree. They seldom do anything radically different from their competitor and once established, just continue doing things in the same idiom. It may be that this is part of the genre’s appeal. It certainly isn’t too difficult to migrate from one MMO to another, as they all broadly do the same thing.
Nostalgia is a powerful emotion and the video games industry has wisely chosen not to ignore it. Hence in recent years we have seen “classic” iterations of various MMOs where early versions of a game are made available again. The growth in rogue servers of games that have long been officially shutdown is another interesting development. The evolution of MMOs has not been to everyone’s liking and some gamers hanker for “how things used to be”. For me, my relationship with MMOs peaked between 2008 and 2011. A perfect storm of events contributed to this genre being the apple of my eye. But change is an inherent part of life. MMOs and I are no longer what we used to be. Yet I still play them in memory of what was and for those occasional, fleeting moments when I briefly reconnect with the past. And then it briefly feels like going home. One day I shall finally part company with this genre and move on. But not yet.
Gaming News Roundup
Once again, here are a handful of gaming news stories from the last ten days or so that caught my eye. I have refrained from writing an entire blog post on each, either because they are too trivial and cannot sustain an article in their own right, or because they might fuel a rant of some kind. I’m too old for that kind of nonsense nowadays. The video game industry really has transitioned from the unique independent position it enjoyed three decades ago, into just another corporate business. Rife with all the usual iniquities and failings. But it’s not all doom and gloom as one story indicates. Ridiculous character crossovers can still bring joy to gamers who love such things.
Once again, here are a handful of gaming news stories from the last ten days or so that caught my eye. I have refrained from writing an entire blog post on each, either because they are too trivial and cannot sustain an article in their own right, or because they might fuel a rant of some kind. I’m too old for that kind of nonsense nowadays. The video game industry really has transitioned from the unique independent position it enjoyed three decades ago, into just another corporate business. Rife with all the usual iniquities and failings. But it’s not all doom and gloom as one story indicates. Ridiculous character crossovers can still bring joy to gamers who love such things.
Alex Hutchinson and Streaming.
Alex Hutchinson, creative director of Stadia Games and Entertainment's Montreal studio thinks that “streamers should be paying the developers and publishers of the games they stream. They should be buying a license like any real business and paying for the content they use”. As you can imagine, these comments were not well received by streamers and some video games companies that have a close association with such platforms. Once again we have to endure the spectacle of someone opening their mouth and holding forth, without the benefit of engaging their brain. It’s becoming tediously commonplace these days. Mr Hutchinson’s arguments are flawed and lack any critical thinking. The benefits of having your products streamed are immense and most of those doing such things are far from “high rollers”. But stupid is as stupid does. However common sense prevailed from Google's global head of gaming for YouTube Ryan Wyatt. He tweeted that "publishers and creators have a wonderful symbiotic relationship that has allowed a thriving ecosystem to be created. One that has mutually benefited everyone".
Whatever Happened to VR?
Popular gaming website Massively Overpowered raised an interesting question recently. “Are we going to see a VR revolution and do you care?” This got me thinking about my own experience with this specific subset of gaming. A few years ago I bought the game Star Trek: Bridge Crew. The nature of the game is self-evident by the name. It was specifically designed to be a VR title but possibly due to poor sales, it was soon patched so it could also be played on the PC in a conventional, non VR fashion. And therein lies the inherent problem with VR. As of yet there does not seem to be a “killer game” that has a universal appeal and incentivises consumers to buy a VR headset. I am reminded of Wii Sports which in many ways played a major role in making the Nintendo Wii a success. VR lacks at present anything like this. Another reason I suspect the uptake of VR in its current form will always be limited is the need for the headset itself. The prospects of having something bulky and cumbersome over my eyes for any length of time, is not a good one. I suspect it is why 3D films have come and gone so many times.
More Exclusive Content for Consoles.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is to offer an exclusive Zombie mode on both the PS4 and PS5 for one year. Zombies Onslaught has two-players facing increasingly difficult waves of zombie hordes. The goal is naturally to kill the undead and survive. Zombie Onslaught mode will deploy players to locations from various multiplayer maps. Both participants have access to the custom loadouts as they do in existing Zombies and Multiplayer modes. Sounds fun for those who dig such things. But once again it highlights the divisive nature of exclusive content. It is often perceived by gamers not so much as a case of offering something bespoke to one particular group but as taking something out of a game for a significantly bigger group. I think exclusive cosmetics are a much more benign method of marketing and less likely to divide the player base.
Celebrity Guest Characters in Gaming.
Mortal Kombat has always been a shamelessly commercial franchise but because it has made no bones about this since the game’s inception, I don’t really have a problem with developers NetherRealms Studios. You know where you stand with them. As they have the publishing muscle of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment behind them they are quite creative in their choice of “celebrity guest characters”. So far the game has included Robocop (voiced by original actor Peter Weller) and The Terminator (based on Arnie’s image but without his voice acting). The next iconic screen persona to be added to the game is John J Rambo (with Stallone providing the voice). You’ll be able to do some fancy knife work, fire explosive arrows and rip out your opponents throat as a finishing move. It’s harmless fun and if I may quote Cupid Stunt “all done in the best possible taste”. And they say that creativity is dead.
LOTRO: Update 28 - War of Three Peaks
Players of the popular MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online were informed just 24 hours ago by developers Standing Stone Games, that the new “mini expansion” would be released today. Under normal circumstances, Update 28 - War of Three Peaks would have just been marketed as a content update and have been free to VIP subscribers, lifetime account holders and purchasable with LOTRO points by F2P players. However, these are far from normal circumstances. From March to May this year, LOTRO enjoyed a major renaissance as the lockdown brought players back to the game. SSG felt so confident in this surge in the playerbase that they made all previous updates available for free. However throughout June, July and August the game suffered major technical problems that lead to the majority of game servers being down for weeks. During that time many players took their business elsewhere or at the very least deferred subscribing until the technical issues were resolved. This left a major hole in SSG’s finances, hence the latest update miraculously became a chargeable “mini expansion”.
Players of the popular MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online were informed just 24 hours ago by developers Standing Stone Games, that the new “mini expansion” would be released today. Under normal circumstances, Update 28 - War of Three Peaks would have just been marketed as a content update and have been free to VIP subscribers, lifetime account holders and purchasable with LOTRO points by F2P players. However, these are far from normal circumstances. From March to May this year, LOTRO enjoyed a major renaissance as the lockdown brought players back to the game. SSG felt so confident in this surge in the playerbase that they made all previous updates available for free. However throughout June, July and August the game suffered major technical problems that lead to the majority of game servers being down for weeks. During that time many players took their business elsewhere or at the very least deferred subscribing until the technical issues were resolved. This left a major hole in SSG’s finances, hence the latest update miraculously became a chargeable “mini expansion”.
A month ago the new update was previewed on the Bullroarer test server and it became clear that it was just more of the same. IE Just another zone with multiple quest hubs. Essentially the same sort of material that SSG have been producing for the last few years. So if this was to be sold as a “mini expansion” then there would have to be some additional content included as well to justify selling it. Hence, the LOTRO community braced themselves as they awaited the pricing details for the War of Three Peaks, as Update 28 has been formally named. SSG usually sells three versions of an expansion. A Standard Edition, a Collector’s Edition and an Ultimate Fan Bundle. It should be noted there have been controversies in the past over previous legitimate expansions and their respective value for money. Oddly enough, SSG decided not to announce the price or exact content of all three editions until today when the “mini expansion” formally launched. However, marketing emails were sent out to some players so the pricing of the three editions became known by midday.
As you can see, the pricing for this mini expansion” is broadly comparable to the previous full expansion Minas Morgul. Considering that War of Three Peaks is just the size of a regular content update, the prices are exorbitant. The Standard Edition is the only one that I will even consider buying as there are insufficient extras in the other two versions to justify their cost. There has already been a degree of “pushback” over on the official LOTRO forums as players voice their displeasure at the pricing and the entire way this situation has been handled. I suspect that if the outcry is big enough, you may find SSG adding additional content to the Collector’s Edition and Ultimate Fan Bundle to try and redress the balance. But there are wider issues here beyond the mere price of this “mini expansion”. Are we about to see a major restructuring of the games business model? If so, is this change in policy down to SSG or their publisher (and potentially owners) Daybreak Game Company?
Charging all LOTRO players for future content updates may well become the “new normal”. Up until now, content updates have been free to subscribers and lifetime account holders. F2P players would purchase Quest Packs for new zones. However this may not have proven especially profitable. When I play LOTRO I subscribe a month at a time. The monthly fee is £9. Quest Packs cost on average 795 LOTRO points (approximately £8). During the course of a month I could play through two or three zones, making a subscription a lot more economical than buying all the respective Quest Packs. Furthermore, lifetime account holders have always received (up to now) access to all new content updates free of charge, so SSG has never made any revenue of this type from this section of the LOTRO community. It has often been argued that lifetime accounts for LOTRO were sold too prolifically during the game’s early years and as a result there is a large percentage of players that do not have to spend any money except for major expansions. If these current practises cease and everyone who plays has to buy new content three times a year then there is scope for SSG to increase their revenue.
However, if the sale of all new content became mandatory, it would invalidate the need for a monthly subscription. At present the only real advantage of subbing is free access to new content and the following additional services. Mailbox Field Access. Custom character portrait frame. Access All Character Trait Slots. Daily +100% XP*. 500 LOTRO Points per month. Free weekly Gold Hobbit Present.Access All Quest Packs and Skirmishes*. Access All Monster Classes. Many of these could be sold individually via the LOTRO store or bundled into a “starter pack” or something similar. The stipend of LOTRO points is a nice bonus and one that I enjoy but it is totally dependent on a subscription. It therefore isn’t really “free” but more of a quid pro quo. It should be noted that the MMORPG Star Trek Online removed subscriptions as of Spring 2018. Many of the benefits that came with subbing to that game simply became one off purchases.
All things considered, perhaps the release of War of Three Peaks as a “mini expansion” is more than just a short term fiscal adjustment, designed to fill a shortfall in the quarterly balance sheet. It may be part of a complete recalibration of the business model for LOTRO and a way to ensure that all players pay equally for the new future content that comes to the game. If that is the case then SSG needs to ensure that all updates meet a high standard. The LOTRO community is very supportive of the game and has more than its share of “whales” who buy cosmetic items prodigiously. However, potential changes such as these indeed to be implemented carefully and require adept community relations, marketing and PR to effectively sell them to the players. Skills that SSG are not renown for. It will be interesting to see how things pan out in the weeks to come. Firstly with the immediate reception of the new “mini expansion” and its respective value for money. Secondly, whether SSG formally announce a revision of the game’s business model. All of which could be a turning point for LOTRO but whether for good or ill remains to be seen.
LOTRO: Even More Community Management Problems
Video games are a somewhat unique consumer product, in so far that we, the customers, broadly seem to have a far more personal relationship with them compared to other recreational activities. For example, I subscribed to several online streaming services that produce TV and film content. However, I never worry about how well their business model is performing, nor do I particularly concern myself with their public relations image. I simply “pay and consume” and as long as I have no technical problems that impede my access, then that is the extent of my relationship with them. I also enjoy Hendrick’s Gin but I don’t worry about the manufacturer, William Grant & Sons. But for some reason, my relationship with video games is different. I am far more au fait with the activities of both the developers and publishers, as well as their overall corporate standing. I suppose it’s because video games are an interactive activity and that make things more personal.
Video games are a somewhat unique consumer product, in so far that we, the customers, broadly seem to have a far more personal relationship with them compared to other recreational activities. For example, I subscribed to several online streaming services that produce TV and film content. However, I never worry about how well their business model is performing, nor do I particularly concern myself with their public relations image. I simply “pay and consume” and as long as I have no technical problems that impede my access, then that is the extent of my relationship with them. I also enjoy Hendrick’s Gin but I don’t worry about the manufacturer, William Grant & Sons. But for some reason, my relationship with video games is different. I am far more au fait with the activities of both the developers and publishers, as well as their overall corporate standing. I suppose it’s because video games are an interactive activity and that make things more personal.
Hence, as a long time player and supporter of the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online I worry about the games long term future. It can be cogently argued (and I have done so myself in the past many times) that it is pointless adopting such a stance but I think this ultimately is just a foible of the human condition. It is in our nature to form communities around the things we love irrespective of whether such communities genuinely have any impact and traction. So bearing this in mind, I think that LOTRO is at a crossroads and that a triumvirate of problems could coalesce and have a very negative impact. The first of these three are technical issues that stem from the fact that LOTRO is a 13 year old game. If a subscription game doesn’t run reliably and consistently then some players take their business elsewhere. The next problem is the business model and the way that Daybreak Game Company is squeezing too hard. Update 28 becoming a “mini expansion” is a succinct example of this. And finally there’s the community relations and communications. They’re poor and often conducted in a very peremptory tone.
There has been a conspicuous lack of information regarding The War of Three Peaks since the preview on the Bullroarer test server on 23rd September. I don’t think the player base was especially impressed with what is essentially just another content update. However, SSG recently stated that the “mini expansion” would be coming in the next week or so. But when asked for further details community manager Jerry Snook stated that SSG would not reveal details of the three different versions of the new content update until the day of its release. If this were any other developer I would’ve been surprised by such a response but after years of such indifferences from SSG, I simply shrugged. They’ve always been shocking at marketing their own content. In recent years, teaser videos have always been hastily produced and hardly make the new content look exciting. Information has always been confined to the forums and never shouted from the rooftops. So the fact that SSG feels disinclined to market The War of Three Peaks is frankly par for the course. I used to think they were just bad at this stuff. I now think they just take their customers for granted.
In the past decade there have been several occasions where the future of LOTRO has appeared to be in doubt. Whether this was the case or not is another matter. However, due to the lack of communication that habitually blights this games community management, we’ve worried about license renewals, corporate takeovers and server relocations over the game’s lifespan. Ultimately, LOTRO has survived and continues to so due to its devoted community. They love the game and its realisation of Middle-earth. The fact that there is no alternative is another major factor. Yet SSG seem to be oblivious to this and have basically given a key role that is supposed to act as a conduit between consumer and vendor to a very grumpy man who always gives the impression he’d much rather be doing something else. They need to fix this problem, along with the technical issues and the business model. God help them if The War of Three Peaks is a dog’s dinner. You can’t keep kicking your community indefinitely, because eventually it will turn on you and leave.
The Woman in Black (1989)
They say that “absence makes the heart grow fonder”. Well until recently the 1989 UK television adaptation of Susan Hill’s ghost story, The Woman in Black has been conspicuously unavailable. There was a limited VHS release exclusive to the store WHSmith in 1990. This was followed by a Region 1 DVD release in 2000 which was a relatively small pressing of the media. Since then rights issues have dogged this TV movie, turning it into a genre classic among horror fans, which has often been discussed in hushed tones by those who saw the original TV broadcast and were left traumatised by “that scene”. However, Network Distribution have finally released a remastered Blu-ray (and DVD), complete with commentary from such luminaries as Mark Gatiss, Kim Newman and Andy Nyman (who appears in this adaptation). It can be viewed in a reframed 16:9 widescreen format or in its original 4:3 aspect ratio.
They say that “absence makes the heart grow fonder”. Well until recently the 1989 UK television adaptation of Susan Hill’s ghost story, The Woman in Black has been conspicuously unavailable. There was a limited VHS release exclusive to the store WHSmith in 1990. This was followed by a Region 1 DVD release in 2000 which was a relatively small pressing of the media. Since then rights issues have dogged this TV movie, turning it into a genre classic among horror fans, which has often been discussed in hushed tones by those who saw the original TV broadcast and were left traumatised by “that scene”. However, Network Distribution have finally released a remastered Blu-ray (and DVD), complete with commentary from such luminaries as Mark Gatiss, Kim Newman and Andy Nyman (who appears in this adaptation). It can be viewed in a reframed 16:9 widescreen format or in its original 4:3 aspect ratio.
In 1925, London solicitor Arthur Kidd (Adrian Rawlins) travels to the coastal market town of Crythin Gifford in North East England to attend the funeral and settle the estate of a reclusive widow, Alice Drablow. Upon exiting the train, Kidd meets Sam Toovey (Bernard Hepton), a local landowner who is unsettled by his prospective dealings in the affairs of the late Mrs Drablow. Kidd finds the townspeople reluctant to talk about either the Drablow's home, Eel Marsh House and the family in general. When Kidd attends the funeral with local solicitor Pepperell, he notices a woman in black in the church and then again standing among the gravestones. He mentions the woman to Pepperell who seems most perturbed by the sighting. While travelling through the village, Kidd witnesses a lumber truck shed its load, hitting and crippling a Romani child. He rescues her, while the villagers watch on, preventing her from being crushed to death by further falling logs. Later as he goes through Mrs Drablows papers at Eel Marsh House, Kidd experiences disturbances of a supernatural nature. Are several voice recordings made on wax cylinders by Mrs Drablow the key to the mystery?
Based upon the 1983 novel, this made for television adaptation was written by genre stalwart Nigel Kneale. It is broadly faithful to the source text (unlike the 2012 remake) but makes some subtle changes. The ending in this instance is bleaker than that of the book but all the better for it. Kneale, a writer with a knack for atmosphere and dialogue, creates a delicious, slow burn ghost story with several disquieting scenes and an iconic jump scare that has now entered the annals of horror fame. Although he touches upon many familiar tropes of the genre he brings a fresh eye to them. The way the locals close ranks and balk at the mention of the Drablow family is quite palpable and the appearances of the woman in black herself are deftly handled. Initially the viewer doesn’t even realise she is a spectre. The production also uses sound effectively to build tension such as the clatter of hoofbeats on the misty causeway outside Eel Marsh House.
The Woman in Black is perfectly paced, building a sense of portentous ambience. Performances are spot on and the production is polished with a lot of period detail. The subject matter of infanticide is bleak but well handled. There is little violence or overt unpleasantness. Just a sense of growing menace in which a child ball can suddenly become an object of terror. Director Herbert Wise understood that less is more in certain instances and he cleverly executes simple and immediate set pieces. Like all good ghost stories, just enough information is provided to hold the supernatural elements together. The notion that a spirit over time loses all facets of their personality leaving behind only an all consuming rage, is thought provoking. And rather than offering a story of spiritual redemption or of laying a ghost to rest, The Woman in Black is more of a cautionary tale. The moral being that no good deed goes unpunished.
Slayground (1983)
There have been several movie adaptations of the books of Jonathan Stark (AKA Donald E. Westlake) featuring his career criminal lead character, Parker. Sadly not all of them have fared well, either critically or at the box office. Many have deviated from the source material, often just using mere aspects of the original plot as the basis of their screenplay. Perhaps the most successful of these has been Point Blank (1967), directed by John Boorman and starring Lee Marvin. Slayground sadly follows the pattern set by previous adaptations. It changes several character names and takes two main elements from the source text and uses them as a premise. Specifically, a robbery that goes wrong which results in an accidental death and a climactic shootout in an out of season fairground. Due to the financing of the film, half of the story takes place in the US and the other in the UK. Much of the cast are British, resulting in a curious and at first glance somewhat incongruous film.
There have been several movie adaptations of the books of Jonathan Stark (AKA Donald E. Westlake) featuring his career criminal lead character, Parker. Sadly not all of them have fared well, either critically or at the box office. Many have deviated from the source material, often just using mere aspects of the original plot as the basis of their screenplay. Perhaps the most successful of these has been Point Blank (1967), directed by John Boorman and starring Lee Marvin. Slayground sadly follows the pattern set by previous adaptations. It changes several character names and takes two main elements from the source text and uses them as a premise. Specifically, a robbery that goes wrong which results in an accidental death and a climactic shootout in an out of season fairground. Due to the financing of the film, half of the story takes place in the US and the other in the UK. Much of the cast are British, resulting in a curious and at first glance somewhat incongruous film.
Long term thief Stone (Peter Coyote) and his accomplice Joe Sheer (Bill Luhrs) arrive in a rundown part of New York State to rob an armoured car. When their usual driver Laufman fails to join them, Sheer employs local driver Lonzini (Ned Eisenberg). Despite successfully undertaking their robbery, Lonzini collides with another car while making their getaway. When Stone investigates the wreckage he discovers all passengers are dead including a young girl. Shocked and outraged by this needless tragedy, Stone threatens to kill Lonzini, however, Sheer intervenes and the gang go their separate ways. But the Father of the dead girl (Michael M. Ryan), a wealthy sports businessman, hires charismatic assassin Costello (Phillip Sayer) and instructs him to find all involved in her death and to kill them. Stone soon learns that he is a marked man, when Lonzini is found brutally murdered. He flees to the UK and seeks out former associate Terry Abbatt (Mel Smith), in the hope of lying low and avoiding the price on his head. But Costello is tenacious and pursues him, relentlessly killing all in his path.
Slayground was written and adapted by British screenwriter Trevor Preston, a veteran of such British cop shows as The Sweeney. Hence several scenes reflect his customary gritty and hard boiled dialogue. The movie starts in a run down part of the US and then relocates to a comparably run down part of the UK. This narrative continuity may well have had a greater significance initially. But Slayground feels like a film that may have substantially re-edited prior to release. It runs for a tight 89 minutes and doesn’t waste it’s time on niceties or unnecessary embellishments. The direction by former cameraman Terry Bedford is uncomplicated and reflects the down-at-heel lifestyle and world of the main characters.
Yet there are major narrative gaps in the proceedings. Where Walter Hill wrote deliberately minimalist characters for The Driver, the flow of events in Slayground gives one the distinct impression that there is 10 to 15 minutes of expositional material is missing. Furthermore, the hitman Costello has a penchant for arranging the bodies of his victims. Yet these scenes are brief and their actual death sequences are conspicuously absent.
Hence the cast are left with precious little to do. Stone is no more of an archetype, rather than a fully rounded character. Billie Whitlaw has only a few scenes as Madge, the owner of a financially failing amusement park, although she gets by on the strength of her personality. And Mel Smith doesn’t arrive until the film’s final act. He delivers a particularly powerful soliloquy about a criminal’s lot in life and we get a brief glimpse of his straight acting talent. But again the proceedings surge ahead towards the climactic showdown between Stone and Costello and the production seems to dismiss the gaps in the plot . What we should have experienced throughout Slayground is a man’s journey through his past as he reflects upon the lifestyle he has chosen and its consequences. Sadly we are instead taken on a journey from A to B to C, where everyone we meet becomes another corpse within minutes of being introduced.
Yet despite its multiple shortcomings, there are a few aspects of Slayground that standout. The film starts with a small vignette that shows the fate of the original getaway driver, Laufman. It is a creative opening gambit. The hitman Costello is also an enigmatic character with his fedora hat and the way we never fully get to see his face. His playful tanting of his victims is an interesting foible. The denouement in the amusement park is suitably creepy, as the fairground automatons are caught in the crossfire. But ultimately this movie fails to reach its full potential, either because of ill conceived editing designed to “streamline” the story, or because the director simply didn’t have the experience to craft a more rounded and detailed narrative. As it stands, Slayground remains a curious anomaly. One of four films produced by Thorn EMI in the early eighties under the auspices of Verity Lambert. The others being Comfort and Joy, Morons from Outer Space and Dreamchild.
Hard Drives and Data Migration
I recently bought three new drives. A 2TB external hard disk drive, a 1TB solid state drive and a 4TB internal hard disk drive. I got all three from Amazon for £250, which was a good price. The external 2.5 inch 2TB HDD is attached to the Blu-ray player in the lounge. This is used for the storage of TV shows and movies. The other two drives are upgrades for my PC. The 1TB SSD replaces an older 240GB model. This is mainly reserved for the operating system and programs such as Microsoft Office. The larger 4TB HDD is for game installations and data storage such as music and photos. All drives are branded names such as Western Digital, Crucial and Toshiba and were chosen because of their performance specifications and capacity. It’s all a far cry from the 120MB HDD that came with my first desktop PC in the middle nineties.
I recently bought three new drives. A 2TB external hard disk drive, a 1TB solid state drive and a 4TB internal hard disk drive. I got all three from Amazon for £250, which was a good price. The external 2.5 inch 2TB HDD is attached to the Blu-ray player in the lounge. This is used for the storage of TV shows and movies. The other two drives are upgrades for my PC. The 1TB SSD replaces an older 240GB model. This is mainly reserved for the operating system and programs such as Microsoft Office. The larger 4TB HDD is for game installations and data storage such as music and photos. All drives are branded names such as Western Digital, Crucial and Toshiba and were chosen because of their performance specifications and capacity. It’s all a far cry from the 120MB HDD that came with my first desktop PC in the middle nineties.
However, there is a downside to replacing drives in your PC and that is the prospect of data migration. Reinstalling an operating system is not as problematic as it used to be and there are now lots of useful tools to make this process easy. The most time consuming task is customising your installation and ensuring that you don’t overlook any important software and files. For example having to reload The Elder Scrolls Online from scratch and then set up all your add-ons is a pain in the ass and hardly a prospect that fills me with glee. The game has a notoriously slow client installer and then making sure your mods are correctly configured is very much a case of trial and error. So with this in mind, I decided to clone my existing C: drive to see if this approach would be easier and quicker. A colleague recommended using Macrium Reflect software as it has a 30 day free trial which doesn’t limit the scope of the software.
To cut a long story short, I successfully cloned the contents of the old SSD but the partition on the new drive was set to the size of the original, which was smaller. I then tried to extend the partition to encompass the entire size of the new Crucial SSD but here’s where the problems began. The drive refused to boot after this change. It was at this point I decided not to conduct some sort of tech based autopsy but to grasp the nettle and undertake a new installation of the operating system, games and apps. So I created a bootable USB flash drive containing Windows installation media and had a fully patched, up to date version of Windows 10 on my PC within two hours. I then started migrating my videos, music, photos, pictures and documents over to the new D: drive. I automated this process and let it run overnight. I use TeraCopy for file transfer, rather than the native Windows Explorer utility, as it is more flexible and reliable.
The Good: I was surprised to learn that it is easy to copy games that have been installed via Battle.net such as Call of Duty Modern Warfare/Warzone. This was most gratifying as the current version is 225GB in size. All I had to do was reinstall the Battle.net client and then copy a single folder which contained the entire game. Similarly, The Elder Scrolls Online can be moved without any major problems. Minion mod manager can also be relocated. Just copy the main installation folder and then the additional “.minion” folder that can be found in the “users\your name” directory. There is also a further “Elder Scrolls Online” directory in the default “Documents” folder that needs to be migrated. Once these three data sources were relocated to reciprocal locations on the new drives, I could log into ESO with all my addons and settings intact.
The Bad: Older games such as The Lord of the Rings Online are temperamental and don’t like to be messed with. So rather than risk moving my current installation, I just started a new download. Again, this is another task I let run overnight as the patch servers are woefully slow. Before I logged into the game, I downloaded and installed DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer. This ensures you have the appropriate DirectX software that this older game requires. After successfully logging in, I migrated the following files from my old installation to ensure my custom settings were maintained. The “UI folder”, “UserPreferences.ini” and “UserPreferences64.ini”, all of which are found in “The Lord of the Rings Online” Folder, which is located by default in “Documents”. Although this is a fairly straightforward process it takes a long time to download the game and LOTRO isn’t always co-operative with more recent hardware.
The Ugly: I have a wireless HP Deskjet 3630 printer, scanner and copier. I can connect to it via a USB cable but wireless access makes it easier for Mrs P when she uses her laptop in the lounge and wants to print something. HP regularly produces comprehensive all in one driver and operating software for their devices. This is often bloated, resource heavy and the kind of program that likes to get it’s claws into every aspect of your operating system. I don’t like any software that doesn’t allow you to fully control its functionality. Hence, I was not impressed with their latest offering “HP Smart”. Admittedly, this software did set up access to my printer quickly and efficiently. But it also gated a great deal of functionality behind cloud based services. Therefore if you want to scan a document you have to “set up an account” and the data will be held online for you to “access anywhere”. Let it suffice to say a few choice Anglo-Saxon terms were bandied about and this software was summarily removed. I found an older version which provided the functionality I required and expected.
Two days later and I now have a fully functional PC once again. I used this opportunity to purge some software from my standard PC build and am now trying to maintain a policy of only installing programs that I use everyday. It is nice to have a PC free from bloatware and partially uninstalled software. The new drives are performing well and I certainly won’t have to worry about storage space anytime soon. I may even make backup images of both the C: and D: drives for any future eventualities and store them in one of the cloud storage options I currently have. Obviously, the temptation with additional disk space is to install more games, irrespective of whether I play them or not. In the meantime I have all the immediate benefits of a PC hardware upgrade as well as those that come through data “housekeeping”.
White Noise (2005)
Successful writer Anna Rivers (Chandra West) goes missing prior to the launch of her new book. Shortly after, her car is found abandoned by the roadside and her body is discovered in the harbour. The Police conclude that there's been a tragic accident. Her husband, architect Jonathan Rivers (Michael Keaton), is devastated by her loss. When he is approached by Raymond Price (Ian McNeice), who claims he has recorded messages from Anna through electronic voice phenomena (EVP), Jonathan is both sceptical and angry. However, his curiosity eventually gets the better of him and he meets with Raymond and quickly becomes immersed in EVP phenomenon. As Jonathan experiments with EVP recording he begins to discern messages from the dead. However, it soon becomes apparent that these communications are of a precognitive nature and that there are more sinister forces at work.
Successful writer Anna Rivers (Chandra West) goes missing prior to the launch of her new book. Shortly after, her car is found abandoned by the roadside and her body is discovered in the harbour. The Police conclude that there's been a tragic accident. Her husband, architect Jonathan Rivers (Michael Keaton), is devastated by her loss. When he is approached by Raymond Price (Ian McNeice), who claims he has recorded messages from Anna through electronic voice phenomena (EVP), Jonathan is both sceptical and angry. However, his curiosity eventually gets the better of him and he meets with Raymond and quickly becomes immersed in EVP phenomenon. As Jonathan experiments with EVP recording he begins to discern messages from the dead. However, it soon becomes apparent that these communications are of a precognitive nature and that there are more sinister forces at work.
White Noise is a slick and glossy production, sporting a modern clean aesthetic that reflects the world of its central character. Much of the story takes place in Jonathan’s home which is a brightly lit, glass palace. The visual style along with the use of what was contemporary technology effectively juxtapose the arcane nature of the supernatural. In this film the shadowy forms of the dead appear on TV screens and monitors, instead of dimly lit corridors. It’s an interesting divergence from typical ghost story tropes but it alone cannot sustain the story. Pretty much everything else about White Noise is formulaic and predictable. That’s not to say that the production is poorly constructed. Director Geoffrey Sax keeps proceedings on track and the story doesn’t out stay its welcome. It’s just that there’s very little that’s different on offer. Keaton and the rest of the cast rely on their acting personas to keep the audience engaged, as all characters are not especially well defined.
It is not easy to quickly and efficiently establish a loving relationship in the first act of a film, and make it seem natural. It requires subtle writing and a talent for focusing on the little things that we share daily with our loved one, to imbue such scenes with a sense of credibility. You’ll find it in Poltergeist (1982) and its depiction of the Freeling family. In White Noise, the opening scenes that try and convey the love between Anne and Jonathan just seem contrived and perfunctory. Hollywood’s predilection for alway making successful, white, middle class men the protagonist in most films, is also an impediment when it comes to generating emotional investment. Beyond the superficial, IE a man who is grieving, it is not difficult to warm to Jonathan Rivers. He’s not a bad man, just a bland one. The way he sidelines his young son due to his growing obsession is hardly endearing either.
Fifteen years on, despite its visual style, White Noise already seems somewhat dated. The continual advance of technology being every film’s Achilles’ heel. It’s quite nostalgic to return to a world filled with CRT TVs and monitors, MiniDiscs, Nokia phones, audio cassettes and VHS tapes. But beyond this minor appeal, the film is underdeveloped and lacking in distinguishing attributes. The story as it is, would be better suited as an episode of The Twilight Zone. The scares are mainly of the “quiet, quiet, loud” variety and any unpleasantness falls squarely into the shallow end of the PG-13 rating. If you want a straight forward, uncomplicated, horror-lite supernatural tale, then White Noise may well scratch that itch. But for genre enthusiasts, this is a somewhat indifferent film, which is possibly a bigger failing than being a bad one.
The McPherson Tape (1989)
In many ways the story behind The McPherson Tape is a lot more interesting than the film itself. This early found footage movie from 1989, was shot on home video on a virtually non-existent budget. The director Dean Alioto eventually found a distributor but on the eve of the movie’s home video release, the warehouse burned down and allegedly destroyed the master tape and all the promotional artwork. Yet this was not the end of the story. It was common practice in the eighties for small distributors to send advance copies to local independent video stores. Hence The McPherson Tape found its way into the pirate video ecosystem. It then migrated to the UFO community where it was circulated as being a video of a legitimate alien abduction. Dean found himself in the unusual position of having to debunk his own work. Three decades later due to the intriguing tale associated with The McPherson Tape, it has been remastered from the newly rediscovered 3/4" tape and re-released.
In many ways the story behind The McPherson Tape is a lot more interesting than the film itself. This early found footage movie from 1989, was shot on home video on a virtually non-existent budget. The director Dean Alioto eventually found a distributor but on the eve of the movie’s home video release, the warehouse burned down and allegedly destroyed the master tape and all the promotional artwork. Yet this was not the end of the story. It was common practice in the eighties for small distributors to send advance copies to local independent video stores. Hence The McPherson Tape found its way into the pirate video ecosystem. It then migrated to the UFO community where it was circulated as being a video of a legitimate alien abduction. Dean found himself in the unusual position of having to debunk his own work. Three decades later due to the intriguing tale associated with The McPherson Tape, it has been remastered from the newly rediscovered 3/4" tape and re-released.
On the evening of October 8, 1983, the Van Heese family gather in the Connecticut mountains to celebrate the birthday of 5-year-old Michelle. The family consists of Ma Van Heese (Shirly McCalla), her three sons Eric (Tommy Giavocchini), Jason (Patrick Kelley), and Michael (Dean Alioto), Eric’s wife Jamie (Christine Staples), his daughter Michelle (Laura Tomas) and Jason’s girlfriend Renee (Stacey Shulman). Michael uses his hand-held camera to record the night’s events, much to the amusement and irritation of his family. They chat and argue as families do as the evening progresses. However when a circuit breaker trips the brothers go outside to restore power. An unusual red light overhead arouses their curiosity so they walk to a neighbouring property, only to find a spacecraft has landed. They flee back to their own house when they are noticed by the extraterrestrial occupants. Armed with shotguns they nervously await pursuit. When something tries to enter via a window, Eric shoots it and brings the body into the house as “evidence”. Is this the end of the siege or do further perils await them?
There is the germ of a good idea in The McPherson Tape and first time writer and director Dean Alioto should be applauded for trying to do something so unusual and ambitious like this back in 1989, when this genre was still in its infancy. But the film struggles to sustain its relatively short hour running time. Despite all the logical concessions that you can make to both the production and cast, this is a ponderous undertaking and a tough watch. It genuinely does at times come across as exactly watching someone’s home videos. Despite restoration, the picture quality is poor however that does work in the films favour to a degree. The characters act in a relatively plausible fashion, arguing among themselves and generally acting impulsively and without any critical thinking. But events take too long to go anywhere and by the time we reach a point where things start to get “interesting” the film ends because it has achieved its purpose.
Hence, I cannot recommend The McPherson Tape to the casual viewer, as it doesn’t really meet mainstream entertainment standards. This is most definitely a niche market product that will best suit the genre completist and aficionado. The editing is minimal and cleverly disguised making The McPherson Tape look very much like a continuous piece of footage. The camera at times is out of focus or points at a plate or the floor. Keeping things simple in scope certainly helps the proceedings and therefore we only see a small amount of the UFO and the aliens themselves. The commentary track on the new Blu-ray release is by far the biggest selling point and it is fascinating to learn how a small budget film ended up fuelling alien abduction conspiracy theories. The director later went on to remake the film with a larger budget and studio backing in 1998, under the title Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County.